News from the Libraries

Library Exam-Time Refreshments: Thanks to SON and SHP!

Thanks to the School of Nursing Student Success Center, students studying hard in the library were treated to cookies and coffee on Tuesday afternoon, December 4th.

On Friday, December 7th, the School of Health Professions provided, cookies, donuts, coffee, hot cider and infused water for students getting ready for exams. One student commented that he was on his way to an exam and the refreshments were just what he needed.

November 2018 UT Health Faculty Publications List

To support our faculty’s research efforts, Briscoe Library has added an additional feature to our monthly newsletter. You are now able to view citations and link to articles from our UT Health Faculty Publications list. As an added feature, altmetric information is also included. This list is produced monthly by our Library Liaison group who can also provide further assistance with scholarly publication efforts. If you do not see your publication listed, you can provide us with the proper citation information by completing this form.

Image of Research Winners and Awards Reception

We are pleased to announce the winners of Briscoe Library’s Image of Research Photography Competition!

1st Place
Jaclyn Merlo, Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences

Rodent Kidney Extracellular Scaffold
The image presented is of a de-cellularized rodent kidney displaying the collagen matrix of the renal vasculature, tubules, and glomeruli. Rapid de-cellularization is accomplished by perfusing a surfactant solution through the renal artery, under exposure to an electric field within a bioreactor. The novel bioreactor, developed at UT Health San Antonio, removes resident cells ten times faster than by traditional de-cellularization technology while preserving elements of the matrix that are critical to directing stem cell differentiation.

High-quality extracellular scaffolds are indispensable for research in regenerative medicine, gene transfer, cancer, and tissue transplantation. The extracellular scaffolds of specific animal tissues can provide templates for the differentiation of human stem cells for the study of diseases in more relevant models, thus facilitating translation to human medicine. Further, the technology is scalable and can prepare large animal and human tissue extracellular scaffolds.

2nd Place
Fabio Vigil, Long School of Medicine

The Universe Within
This image is the merge (overlay) of two photos. The first is a fluorescent microscope photo of a brain slice with the nucleus of all brain cells shining in blue (DAPI) and occasional immune cells shining in green (Iba1). These kind of photos are taken everyday in neuroscience laboratories. The second image is a photo of the Cat’s eye nebula taken by the Hubble space telescope. Looking simultaneously through the microscope and the telescope, this image invites you to think of your brain as a universe within you. The resemblance of the fluorescent cells to stars in the sky is astounding. The image also alludes to a fractal repetition of the same shapes and structures in different scales.

3rd Place
Camila Pereira, Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences

Airway Space Tour – A 3D Ride
The airway should be free of obstacles such that air can follow its course from the nasal cavity into the lungs. Our research investigates the airway space imbalance that affects children who breath through their mouth while sleeping. Dental 3D radiograph should be used as opportunistic screening tool for sleep-related breathing disorders such as snoring and sleep apnea. These disorders could be caused by hypertrophied tonsils and nasal obstruction between others. Due to the lack of good sleep, children could have low grades at school, difficulty to concentrate, and disturbed cognitive abilities. Other signs such as delayed growth, tiredness, irritability, or lack of energy even to play are related. Ultimately, 3 dimensions of life are affected: craniofacial growth, intellectual development and quality of life. When the dysfunction is detected early enough, the consequences can be reduced or even eliminated. We hope the translation of our research project will increase awareness and raise the attention of the dental professionals’ and the general public to this matter. The sleep disordered breathing is a public health issue and surveillance is essential. Let’s take this ride!

Treatment in the Stars
Astrocytes carry great potential for stroke treatment and research conducted in the past has generally ignored their ability to heal neurons. Research suggests that use of fatty acid oxidation by astrocytes may be useful for healing, and protecting tissues that have been affected by stroke. Triiodothyronine (T3), a thyroid hormone, stimulates fatty acid oxidation, stimulating the production of ATP in astrocytes. In mice treated with T3 stroke lesion volumes are smaller than those without treatment. In this image the brighter activated astrocytes indicate a stressed brain, one that has experienced an injury. T3, the constellation found in the middle of the image may one day be used for stroke treatment.

Briscoe Library’s Image of Research Photography Competition came to a close with an awards reception during Student Appreciation Week on Thursday, November 1st. All entrants, Image of Research Judges, contest sponsors, students, faculty, and staff were invited to come view the entries, meet the winners, and enjoy refreshments.

Annual P.I. Nixon Dinner Draws a Crowd

The message to the 120 attendees of the 48th Annual Friends of the Nixon Medical Historical Library Dinner this year (on Friday October 26th) was that, yes, sugar is bad for you. Author Gary Taubes, award-winning science and health journalist, shared an historical account of the tracking of diabetes rates and made a convincing case that sugar is the tobacco of the new millennium. This did not, however, keep some of those in attendance from eating their dessert.

The subject, though lighthearted at times, bears undeniably serious considerations for the role of diet and nutrition in the health of our U.S. population as well as the health of our healthcare system. Outgoing President of the Friends, Eithan Kotkowski, was on hand to introduce Mr. Taubes and pass the gavel on to incoming Friends President, Dr. Anand Karnad. Mr. Kotkowski has also written a more detailed account of Mr. Taube’s work in an article for The Pipette Gazette.

Chat With a Librarian

Briscoe Library now has a chat service that allows you to chat directly with a librarian. The chat is managed during our regular on call hours (10 AM – 4 PM) and can be access through the orange chat button on the bottom right of each page of the library’s website. When a librarian is available for chat, the button will display “Chat Now”. When offline, you will have the option to submit your question through an online form (all questions will be answered during on call hours) or search for your answer in our LibGuides with the “Ask Us” button.

Briscoe Librarians Present at Medical Library Conference

For nearly two years, seven Briscoe librarians served on the Local Arrangements Committee for the 2018 Annual Conference of the South Central Chapter of the Medical Library Association (SCC/MLA). This event marked the 45th SCC/MLA conference and was held October 19-24 at the historic Menger Hotel in downtown San Antonio, which was also the location of the very first SCC/MLA conference. In addition to serving on the planning committee for the conference, librarians gave multiple presentations about their work.

Library liaisons along with Texas A&M librarian and systematic reviews expert Margaret Foster (pictured above) presented twice on their collaborative work with a poster titled “Learning the Systematic Review Process-A Collaborative Approach” and a paper, “Information and Library Skills Training in Nursing Education: A Systematic Review.”

Librarians Christy Tyson and Andrea Schorr presented a lightning talk, “A Legacy for the Healing Arts: An Open-Access Database for Dentistry and Beyond,” to discuss the Birgit Junfin Glass Dental Diagnostic Science Collection. It is a database indexed with MeSH terminology and custom controlled vocabulary and the first contribution to the new Open Access Educational Resource initiative at Briscoe Library.

Additionally, Christy Tyson and Kelley Minars presented a lightning talk on the integration of 3D printing services in the School of Dentistry and School of Medicine curricula through an Introduction to 3D Design module. The instruction supports 3D implant and prosthetic design.

Emme Lopez and Christy Tyson presented a paper titled “Mapping the ACRL Framework to Interprofessional Curricula in the Health Sciences.” It outlines a process for creating a rubric which supports information literacy instruction across the health sciences by mapping the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) Information Literacy Framework to curricula. Tyson worked on and presented similar work with fellow members of the MLA Dental Section through a paper titled “Mission Critical: Advancing Information Literacy in Dental Education by Mapping Curricula to the ACRL Framework.”

On the last day of the conference, Chris Gaspard and Emme Lopez taught a four hour Continuing Education class called “Beware of Sharks: Predatory Publishing and Practices–Be Prepared!” They covered the history and tactics of predatory publishers as well as tools and techniques to identify low-quality emails, websites, conferences, and book publication offers.

If you would like information on any of the above-mentioned presentations, you may email askalibrarian@uthscsa.edu.

New Library PaperCut Printers Are Here!

There is a new game in town for printing across our campus and it’s called PaperCut! To accommodate the new system, approximately 30 new printers have been installed in various campus locations including 2 in the library on the entry-level 3rd floor.

The PaperCut system allows users to print to the new printers in two basic ways, either directly from a desktop or by way of the PaperCut website. While the website option is more convenient for mobile devices, it is less robust than the desktop option.

Click here to get started using PaperCut. Charges for printing are .08 cents per (one-sided) B&W page and .25 cents per (one-sided) Color page.

Please check with library staff for more information on how to best use the new system. For technical issues contact UT Print at 210-567-2315 or printingservices@uthscsa.edu.